David Hobby Deconstructs A Portrait

We get a lot of emails from readers pointing us to interesting photoshoots and many times the videos themselves offer very little insight into the mind of the photographer. Unfortunately this video has no such commentary from David Hobby but the good news is he has a complete article outlining how he shot this portrait of cellist Caleb Jones. Watch David as he uses his Orbis Ring Flash and Umbrella to get his signature look. He also does a great job making Caleb feel at home in front of the camera. Props to Erik Couse for using his iPhone 3Gs to capture something creative!

@Frank - David didn't take the video or even realize I was filming. I edited it and posted it the next day, before he had his shots up on Flickr. If you want to see the final results check out his blog or his Flickr photos. Additionally, you can view my Vimeo page and get a brief description of what I wanted to highlight with the vid.

Thanks to fstoppers for posting this. Hopefully everyone gets something out of it.

@ Simon Goodson - Who cares how you hold the camera, as long as it gets the camera in the right position for the shot? I've held on by grips, straps, even duck taped a camera into place to get a shot once. Bravo to David Hobby for some really cool shots!

It's always nice to see behind-the-scenes footage on shoots. It's great help for people to learn more about lighting and shooting, in general. There's another site that shows how famous photographers light their images, you should check <a href="http://www.guessthelighting.com" rel="nofollow"><b>GuessTheLighting.com</b></a>. Keep up the great work.

@Simon Goodson- The D3 he uses has two shutter buttons, one for portrait and one for landscape. He's using the shutter button typically used in landscape mode because if he doesn't the sync cord will be on the other side of the camera and be in his way. I've been lucky enough to assist David on a few shoots, trust me, he knows how to manipulate that camera.